Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami must speak to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to repatriate residents of Tamil Nadu stranded in some countries in the Gulf region, under the Vande Bharat mission either using flights or ships, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri said.
Mr. Alagiri said Tamils living in the United Arab Emirates are disappointed, as the schedule for the first two missions have completely ignored them. “Out of the 64 services in the first week, 25 have been scheduled for West Asian countries. But of these, only four have been scheduled for Tamil Nadu, and these are only from UAE, Oman and Kuwait. Tamils living in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar have been completely ignored. Despite thousands of Tamils living in these countries applying for repatriation, not even a single service has been scheduled,” Mr. Alagiri said.
In the second week, of 109 services, only six are to the region, and there is no clarity on which cities these services will operate to. “Pregnant women, people needing medical treatment, senior citizens, tourists, people who have lost their jobs are all eagerly waiting to come back to India. But, Tamil Nadu having three international airports — Chennai, Madurai and Tiruchirapalli (with air services to the region), they are upset that no flights have been scheduled to Tamil Nadu,” he said.
